Skip to main content

Buckle up!

By

Seemingly without build-up, the World Cup is upon us, and despite being a symbol of both football's corruption and the ills of humanity, I just can't help myself from being excited. The tournament has every chance of being, in footballing terms, one of the best yet. Players in peak fitness, form and rhythm, in-tournament travel virtually non-existent (remember the last Euros, 'sponsored by travel sores'), mild but not absurd weather and presumably very shiny facilities. We already know it's had a lot of money thrown at it (in all the wrong ways) and we can safely assume it will have everything thrown at ensuring it is presented positively. From a footballing perspective, its mouth watering.

I love football too much to boycott the tournament as a viewer or a blogger, but I am also mindful that others will look at me and people who share my views with disdain - blinkered, insensitive to the bigger issues at play, and generally being the gullible detergent in the sports-washing machine. For this reason I'm making it my pledge to use the tournament to learn more about these bigger issues, educate myself a bit so I can at least know and speak up, or even just make more informed choices in future.

A few resources that I'll go to, which might be of interest to others, include:

FIFA uncovered documentary on Netflix 

Amnesty low-down 

BBC summary 

Now I've shared those thoughts, it feels crass to launch straight into squad reviews and excitable pre-tournament predictions, so I'll sign off for now and share more through the week as I study up on the runners and riders.

This time around I am hoping that we may have as many as four contributors to the blog - doubling Stevey and my chances of making sense and calling things right.

Have a good week.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I am numb

By
The England match left me numbed. Unimpressive, uninspired, lacklustre – however the bottle of champagne I enjoyed with the game certainly took the edge off things. It seems that we, along with France and Italy are suffering some horrendous ‘anti-football’ affliction. If the game was less global then we could put it down to ‘a long hard season in the Premier league’ or ‘the difficulty of being motivated for national team games when the premier league pays so well’; but neither is valid. Neither is this jibulabulani ball business. The teams who pass to each other seem not to suffer. Poor selections and poor play has blighted us, and whilst lots of vitriol heads in the direction of Heskey, we’d do well to remember that the main culprits on Friday were Gerrard and Rooney for having zero patience on the ball and terrible control. Lampard wasn’t much better. At least Barry gave us some sort of stable platform to build from. I expect the introductions of Joe Cole and Jermain Defoe or Peter...
Post a Comment
Read more

Arriving late at the far post...........

By
Well, out from behind a rock I come. Like Batman responding to the spotlight over Gotham, the sight of Alexi Lalas relaxing on ESPN's swanky new World Cup set spouting 'knowledge' of the beautiful game immediately triggered me into action. A personal excitement for me is the returning punditry on this side of the pond of one Roberto Martinez. 4 years ago, I listened to this polite young man with light enthusiasm....now I find myself hanging onto every word from Bobby Brown Shoes. A supremely classy guy, just hoping for the "and Neymar is close to signing, which is phenonemal (Bobby's most used word - quite impressive for a Spanish native) " Sooo, what have I missed so far (Brazil own goal aside).... - Roy Hodgson in old man sunglasses - An amazing lack of planning from team England organizing a friendly in Florida at 5pm in June and being surprised as a thunderstorm - Scapegoating of a key England player (Rooney) before a ball is kicked in anger - Overplay...
2 comments
Read more

Kuddelmuddel

By
I was convinced the German team would recover emphatically. Their opening game was an aberration, and whilst they were poor defensively, they created enough chances to win a handful of games. So against a threat-less Sweden, I was sure normality would return. Yet Saturday night’s game so nearly turned the footballing world on its head. I think the only surprise when the ball tore into the net in the 95th minute was that it wasn’t an England keeper disconsolately picking the ball out of the net. Kudos to Germany, back from the brink. If they solve their defensive Kuddelmuddel (one of their great words that means a phrase “unstructured mess, chaos or hodgepodge”) then they will yet again be a force to be reckoned with. Speaking of forces; er, England?! None of this cagey group stage malarkey going on. Boom, into the last 16 with the tournament just 9 days old. Kane is off down to Timpsons for some golden coloured shoe polish. What a result and what a great performance, admittedly...
Post a Comment
Read more